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Chişinău, Aug. 19 (AP) For little Moldova, a poor, landlocked country bordering war-torn Ukraine but not part of the European Union or NATO, another week of haunted by bomb threats.
On a cloudy day outside the international airport serving Moldova’s capital Chisinau, hundreds of people lined up this week for bomb-sniffing dogs to inspect the nearby area.
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This is now a common scene in Europe’s poorest country as it battles what observers see as attempts to destabilize the former Soviet republic in the Russian-Ukrainian war.
Moldova has received nearly 60 bomb threats since early July – more than 15 reported so far this week – ranging from the capital’s city halls to airports, the Supreme Court, shopping malls and hospitals.
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While no one has been charged with the bomb threats, most of which arrived via email, and all of which have proven false, officials said they had traced computer addresses to Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
“This is part of a disinformation war against Moldova, which is going on,” said Valeriu Pasa, an analyst at Watchdog.md, a Chisinau think tank. “It may be part of Russia’s efforts to destabilize Moldova because they use There are many different ways to do this.”
Moldova, with a population of 2.6 million, has faced multiple crises since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
It takes in more Ukrainian refugees per capita than any other country; tensions are soaring in the country’s Russia-backed breakaway region; it is dealing with a severe energy crisis; and like much of Europe, it is battling soaring inflation.
Frequent bomb threats only add to the pressure on the country’s already overwhelmed authorities.
“It blocks a lot of resources – police, investigators, technical services – and I would say it’s a form of bullying or harassment of Moldova’s national system and public service,” Pasa said.
Since the bomb threats began, “almost every day we open criminal cases,” Maxim Modinga, a prosecutor with Moldova’s Office for Combating Organised Crime, told The Associated Press.
“At the moment, all criminal investigations are ongoing,” he said, adding that Russia and Ukraine have made requests for official assistance if “certain tracks to their respective countries are established”.
“I hope we can get some answers from these countries,” he said.
For Veaceslav Belbas, a 43-year-old Moldovan businessman who returned to Chisinau from Turkey on Monday, the bomb threat terrified him as his plane circled the capital’s airport for 30 minutes. After that, the plane turned around and returned to Turkey.
“We prayed a lot and finally landed,” he said. “For me, I told my wife that this was my last flight and it was a huge shock.”
Tensions in Moldova soared in April after a series of actual bombings along the Russian-backed breakaway region of Transnistria, where Russia has about 1,500 troops stationed in the region’s so-called frozen conflict zone.
It has raised concerns that non-NATO, military-neutral Moldova could be dragged into the orbit of war with Russia. At least one Russian official has spoken out about grabbing enough land in southern Ukraine to link Russian-held areas from the mainland to Transnistria.
Observers noted that the blasts came as Moldova — historically close to Moscow — displayed a growing Western leaning, and after it applied to join the European Union, it did so shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It was granted EU candidate status in late June, shortly before the bomb threat began.
Since Moldova gained independence in 1991, it has been plagued by organized crime and official corruption. An attempt by a local oligarch to seize power after the 2019 election sparked mass protests before he fled the country. In 2014, several politicians and oligarchs claimed to be involved in a scam that cost local banks $1 billion. No one has yet been convicted in this case.
Galina Gheorghes returned to the UK from Moldova last month after attending a house party when bomb threats cancelled her flight. She said she was angry because no one had been caught yet.
“What’s going on is very bad…Unfortunately, ordinary people are suffering,” said Gheorghes, 35.
In a seemingly endless pattern of damaging and costly threats, Moldova’s interior ministry said it wanted to strengthen penalties for anyone convicted of false bomb alarms by increasing fines and imposing longer prison terms.
Chisinau airport has been hit by dozens of bomb threats since July, and security measures have been tightened in response.
Airport border police chief Radu Zanoaga said a team of experts had been set up to save security officials from the hassle of travelling from the city centre every time there was a bomb threat.
“Currently, we are working with other (national) agencies and agencies operating within the airport to deal with this situation,” he said. “There have been bomb alarms before — but not as many, and not as often as they are now.” (The Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from the Syndicated News feed, the body of the content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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